MPP Piccini Announces Final Approval for Ed's House

NORTHUMBERLAND, ON – Ontario’s Government is providing more people in Northumberland with the compassionate care they deserve when nearing the end of their lives.

Today, David Piccini, MPP for Northumberland – Peterborough South, announced that the government has given approval of the Capital Program application for the site of Ed’s House Northumberland Hospice Care Centre. The contract for the building has been awarded and development of the hospice care centre is able to move forward.

The provincial government has allocated $1.2 million in capital funding and $630,000 in operational funding to support Ed’s House. This is an important and exciting announcement for Community Care Northumberland, for the project team and for the residents of our community.

This announcement allows Ed’s House to begin construction of their 18,000 square foot hospice hub with six operational beds located on Ontario Street in Hamilton Township. Ed’s House will be a hospice hub providing residential hospice care 24/7 at no cost to those receiving the service.

The approval means more people in Northumberland and across Ontario can access end-of-life care in a home-like setting thanks to the investment by the government of nearly $33.6 million to build 193 new hospice beds.

“Ed’s House will provide our residents with quality, compassionate end-of-life care in a comfortable setting that is close to home,” said MPP Piccini. “All of our residents and families deserve access to dignified end-of-life care and our Government fully supports the remarkable Hospice teams around our community.”

Moving forward with the development of these new hospice beds across the province is a part of the government’s commitment to take immediate action to address challenges facing our health care system, as well as delivering on its commitment to end hallway health care.

“Building new hospice beds across Ontario will provide people with end-of-life care and support in a more comfortable setting,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. “With early investments like these, our government is ensuring that patients are provided with the proper comfort, dignity and respect they deserve. Together, our government’s investments in infrastructure, hospital operations, mental health and addition services, long-term care, home care and community xare, among others, will make more beds available for those who need hospital care, helping end hallway health care in Ontario.”

“Congratulations to Community Care Northumberland, and the entire ED’s House project team for their dedication and hard work to make this hospice a reality,” said MPP Piccini. “Special thank you also to the community for the overwhelming support of this project to-date.”

"On behalf of the Board for Community Care Northumberland I wish to express our thanks to the Province of Ontario for approving this stage of our capital project. We are excited to be able to move forward with entering a construction contract and starting the building of Ed’s House.” said Ray Lobban, Chair of the Board for Community Care Northumberland.

QUICK FACTS

Ontario invested $33.6 million to develop 193 new hospice beds across the province.

When these beds open, the government will provide $20.3 million each year for nursing, personal support and other services to support the residents in these new beds.

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care expects most of these new beds will be operational by 2020-21 with some facilities opening earlier.

The government has already allocated up to 7,232 long-term care beds, fulfilled almost half of our commitment toward bringing 15,000 new long-term care spaces in Ontario over five years.

The government is upgrading an additional 15,000 older long-term care beds to provide more appropriate care to patients with complex health conditions.

In addition to the 6,075 new beds previously allocated, the government is moving forward immediately with the allocation of an additional 1,157 new long-term care beds through 16 projects across the province.